Help me decipher SD cards!

psyiko · 04-29-2010

I've never owned a good digital camera that used an SD card where I actually cared how fast it wrote and how many RAW images it could hold.

I have a Panasonic GF1 and I was wondering if any users out there could give me some advice on what kind of card to get. I am taking it on a two week trip to India without a laptop so I need a high capacity card so I can keep my images on them without having to download them. What sort of size do you think will be good for that? 32GB is still very expensive so I was thinking of a 16GB or 2x 8GB cards. Also, does the write speed really matter? Will a Class 2 really take a half second to write the image each time?

Thanks!

MartinP · 04-29-2010

It could be worth taking multiple smaller cards, rather than one single huge card. That way if there is a card problem you can (maybe) still go on shooting with a different one and try to recover the damaged card when you are home - instead of having no alternative to reformatting the damaged card, and definitively wiping everything you did up to that point....

ampguy · 04-29-2010

I'd go with Class 4 or Class 6, especially if doing any video.

Not sure if the GF1 will benefit from faster cards, but I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a significant increase in performance when using a class 4 or 6 vs a 2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by psyiko

I've never owned a good digital camera that used an SD card where I actually cared how fast it wrote and how many RAW images it could hold.

I have a Panasonic GF1 and I was wondering if any users out there could give me some advice on what kind of card to get. I am taking it on a two week trip to India without a laptop so I need a high capacity card so I can keep my images on them without having to download them. What sort of size do you think will be good for that? 32GB is still very expensive so I was thinking of a 16GB or 2x 8GB cards. Also, does the write speed really matter? Will a Class 2 really take a half second to write the image each time?

Thanks!

dexdog · 04-29-2010

I second the suggestion to use a number of smaller cards as opposed to one larger card. I had a 4GB card fail on me during a tour of Botswana; luckily I did not lose many images, and had a bunch of other cards that I could turn to.

Also, compare the write speed to your camera to the write speed of the card, and choose the closest match

swoop · 04-29-2010

The class system is just a suggestion/minimum speed. Most cards perform faster than the class speed rates them. And for all digital cameras the card speeds are kind of a moot point. It's only when you're downloading them to your computer does it really become a factor.

I do notice a difference between sandisk extreme (class 6) and sandisk ultra (class 4) when transferring. But it's not going to kill you to wait an extra 2 minutes.

In general I go for the reputable brands. Sandisk and Kingston. And I buy in relatively small sizes. 4GB cards for both my Leica M9 and Nikon D2x.

sonofdanang · 04-29-2010

Costco (a chain in N. America; I don't know where the OP is located) sells 4-in-a-blister-pack 2gb San Disk SD cards for around thirty bucks. Buy three packs for a total of 12 cards. Get a card wallet and then number the cards. As you fill each card, put it back in the wallet with the number side facing outward through the little glassine window. I don't know anything about the file size of the GF-1 but simple math should take care of the shots-per-card question. Think of a card as a "roll" and, depending on how much you shoot, you should be covered.

I totally agree with the multiple-card approach. Don't worry about the speed of the card - unless you are burst-shooting - in which case it may very well be the choke point (smaller cameras usually don't have the buffer capacity) - otherwise it's only really a factor in downloading to the computer - something which is easily interlarded with other activities. The only need for high-speed cards is if you are working on a deadline and you have an assistant or runner, in which case you will be using multiple cards anyway.

As an example, I shoot 8 gb 233x CF cards on a D3 - a 12mp camera. Using the RAW+JPEG FINE storage option I get about 250 pairs (RAW+JPEG of the same image) on each card. RAW-only gets me just under four hundred. JPEG fine gets me 700-ish. I know that it's a bit "apples and oranges" but knowing how big a file you see in RAW and awareness of your shooting habits will help. I also use a D40 and a G9 - both cameras use SD cards - I have a wallet full of Ultra II cards and they perform just fine.

Enjoy your trip!

biomed · 04-29-2010

I have used class 4 cards in my GF1 without any problems. Panasonic reccommends a class 6 card for video recording.

count_zero · 04-29-2010

I use a 8GB class 10 for video and bracketing. Otherwise, a 32GB class 4 works fine. The class 10 does seem to save faster when bracketing. The Olympus E500 has been tested to write a 10MB/s sustained, so there is a benefit when going with class 10 (the class rating is how fast it will write).

psyiko · 04-30-2010

Thanks! I've decided to get 4x 4GB cards. Video is definitely not a huge concern for me so I think Class 4 should be okay. Thanks for all the great info.